Hand puppet doll



June 7, 1955 v. L. GRADWOHL 2,709,870

HAND PUPPET DOLL Filed Dec. '7, 1951 L r v I NVENTOR VIOLET LEE GRADWOHL[9 BY-Mwww ATTORNEY United States Patent O 2,702,870 HAND P-UPPET noLLViolet LeeGi-adwohl, Lincoln, Nebn, assignor to Terri Lee, inc, Lincoln,Nebn, a corporation of Nebraska Application December 7, 1951, Serial No.260,355

3 Claims. .(Cl. 469 154) This invention relates to new and .usefulimprovements in puppet dolls. More particularly, :the present inventionrelates to the combination of a puppehdoll having a head portioncomposed of a deformable material such, for example, as a vinyl plasticmaterial or rubber, a body portion composed of miniature wearingapparel, and a control member, which is disposed partly within the bodyportion and partly within the head portion to provide a means by whichthe puppet doll may be manipulated so that it appears to perform certainmovements such as walking, skating and dancing, for example.

One of the objects of the present invention resides in the provision ofa hollow puppet doll having a rigid control member extending through thehollow body portion into the head portion and into each hollow arm ofthe doll for providing means for manipulating the doll.

Another object of the present invention is the provision of a controlmember for a hollow puppet doll which has an enlarged upper portionadapted to be received by the hollow head portion of the doll, laterallyextending arm portions adapted to be respectively received by the hollowarm portions of the doll and means for gripping the control member atthe lower end thereof.

An additional object of the invention is the provision of a hollowpuppet doll having a control member associated therewith and disposedinside the doll, the control member including finger gripping meansdisposed adjacent an opening in the backside of the hollow body portionwhereby the fingers of the operator may be inserted through the openinginto the finger gripping means of the control member.

Still another object of the present invention is the provision of ahollow puppet doll having a control member disposed within the doll andincluding means through which two fingers of the operator may beinserted from the backside of the doll to thereby simulate the legs ofthe puppet and also control the actions of the puppet.

Other objects and many of the attendant advantages of this inventionwill be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood byreference to the following detailed description, when considered inconnection with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a front elevation view with the control member shown inbroken lines;

Figure 2 is a side elevation view of the puppet doll of the presentinvention.

Figure 3 is a front elevation view of the control memher for the puppetdoll of my invention; and

Figure 4 is a detail view of the connecting joint between thelongitudinal portion of the control member and the laterally extendingarm portions thereof as viewed from line 44 in Figure 3.

Referring now to the drawing and more particularly to Figures 1, 2 and 3thereof, it will be observed that the head portion 11 of the doll isprovided with a laterally extending shoulder 12 near the base thereof.An aperture, not shown, is provided in the bottom side of shoulder 12whereby the interior portions of the hollow head 11 of the ice doll willbein communication with the interior portions of the hollow body portion.13 of vthe doll. The body portion 13 of the doll which is made of clothresembling wearing apparel is secured to the head portion 11 by wrappingthe upper endof the body portion around the 7 lower extremity of thehead portion and above the laterally extending shoulder 12andthensecuring the clothto the headpo rtion 11 inthis position by meansof .glue, staples, thread or any other conventional means found suitablefor the purpose. The backside ofthe body portion ofthe doll is providedwith a longitudinally extending opening as is indicated by numeral 14for-the purpose of providing an aperture through which two fingers 15and 16 of the operators hand may be inserted for actuating the controlmember, generally designated by numeral 17.

The novel control member .17 of the presentinvention includes a pair oflooped wire portions 18 and 19 adapted to receive two fingers oftheoperators-hand when inserted through the opening 14in the backside ofthe body portion 13 of the doll. The control member further includes alongitudinally extending twisted wire member 21, the upper end portionof which is looped as at 22 and is disposed within the hollow headportion 11 of the doll. Intermediate the ends of the control member 17is a connecting joint 23, best viewed in Figure 4, which serves toconnect the longitudinally extending member 21 of the control member tothe laterally extending arm portions 24 and 25, respectively, thereof.This joint 23 is formed by loosely threading the intermediate portion ofthe laterally extending arm members 24 and 25 between adjacent strandsof the longitudinally extending twisted wire member 21 in such a mannerthat the laterally extending arm members 24 and 25 may be partiallyrotated in three mutually perpendicular directions without binding.

The outer end extremities of the laterally extending arm members 24 and25 are respectively provided with looped portions 26 and 27 for thepurpose of filling out the hollow end portions 28 of the main body 13.

it is pointed out that the control member is made of only two pieces,namely the looped portions 18 and 19, the longitudinally extendingtwisted wire members 21, and the loop 22 being of a single piece of wireformed in such a manner as to produce the configurations hereinbeforementioned, and, in addition, the laterally extending arm portions 24 and25 being formed from another single piece of wire twisted to produce theconfigurations illustrated in the drawing.

It will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that thecontrol member instead of being made of wire may be cardboard or anyother rigid material found suitable for the purpose.

Briefly stated in summary the puppet doll of the instant inventionincludes a wire control member, one end of which holds the head of thedoll erect, and the other end of which has looped portions through whichfingers of the operator may be inserted to simulate the legs of thepuppet. The puppet fits on the back of the hand as is illustrated in thedrawing, and, through manipulation of the fingers, it appears to executecertain movements, such as walking, skating, and dancing, for example.

While the invention has been described with reference to a certainpreferred example thereof which gives satisfactory results, it will beunderstood by those skilled in the art to which the invention pertainsthat various changes and modifications may be made without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention, and it is my intention,therefore, to cover in the appended claims all such changes andmodifications.

I claim:

1. A hand operated puppet doll comprising a hollow head portion, anenlarged annular shoulder disposed at the lower end or" said headportion, a hollow body portion secured to said head portion above saidshoulder, said shoulder being provided with an aperture to providecommunieation between said body and said head portions, a pair of hollowarm portions, a substantially rigid longitudinal member disposed withinand extending a substantial length of said body portion and into saidhead portion, said hollow body portion having an aperture providedtherein, a pair of laterally spaced finger receiving loop elements atone end of said longitudinal member and disposed adjacent said lastmentioned aperture whereby two fingers of the operator may be insertedthrough said last mentioned aperture and into said loop elements tothereby actuate the longitudinal member and to simulate the legs of thepuppet doll, said longitudinal member further including a loop elementat the other end thereof for insertion into said hollow head portion, ajoint intermediate said ends of said longitudinal member, and laterallyextending arm portions carried by said joint and having looped endsinsertable into said hollow arm portions.

2. A hand puppet comprising a head portion and a hollow body portion, asingle control member disposed longitudinally within said body portionwith one end of said control member extending into said head portion,laterally spaced finger engagement loops at the other end of saidcontrol member, and a laterally extending ann member pivotally engagedto said control member between its ends for partial rotation in threemutually perpendicular directions.

3. A hand puppet as defined in claim 2, wherein said control memberincludes a central section of twisted wire, and said arm member includesa loop portion intermediate the ends thereof, said loop portion beingloosely disposed between locally spaced strands of said twisted wiresection.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,299,377 Myers Apr. 1, 1919 1,422,840 De Grasse July 18, 1922 2,206,950Gregg July 9, 1940 2,551,195 Wirth May 1, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 345,333Germany Dec. 9, 1921

